Ex-Surgeon General calls Disney kids' hospital home

Jeannette Rivera-lyles | Sentinel Staff Writer

August 31, 2008

As a newly minted vice president of Disney's Children's Hospital at Florida Hospital, Dr. Antonia Coello Novello has an ambitious agenda.

She wants to create a pain center that combines conventional and alternative medicine, fund a program that would send doctors to local schools and open an umbilical-cord blood bank. Novello knows she's set the bar high, but achieving is almost second nature to her.

It was Novello, the daughter of a rural schoolteacher in Puerto Rico, who in 1990 shattered the proverbial glass ceiling to become the nation's first Hispanic and first female U.S. Surgeon General.

After a successful career that has taken her around the world, Novello says she's ecstatic to call Orlando home.

"This is the place to be," Novello said. "With a med school on the way, the Burnham Institute, new hospitals in the making and the Lake Nona research complex, Orlando won't be the same 10 years from now. It's best to join places when they are on their way and participate in that process, than to arrive when everything is done."

County Commissioner Mildred Fern�ndez, a friend of Novello's, readily admits she aggressively pursued her and persuaded Novello to come here.

"This woman brings a wealth of knowledge and experience not just to Central Florida but to the entire state," Fern�ndez said. "She's an expert in children's obesity and diabetes, has a solid public-service track record and is afraid of nothing. As a fellow Puerto Rican, I am so proud of her."

Those who know Novello describe her as a straight-shooter who takes a no-nonsense approach to life. She has strong opinions, particularly about children's and women's issues and the empowerment of Hispanics.

"I don't think they [Florida Hospital's executives] know what they've gotten themselves into," she quipped.

Jeannette Rivera-Lyles can be reached at jrivera@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5471.